It looks like the New Beat story's becoming a David and Goliath tale where Tom Thumb is winning from the "Big Business"-giant. A modest but, for the moment anyway, very successful coup from Diskoboy on the junta by Press, Record Houses and Music Charts. In less than a year an alternative circuit of producers and distributors has reached amazing success. Too much to ignore actually, so established record companies, which didn't even look up initially, have to start paying attention nowadays. By now more than just Belgians have started to hop along on the beat dictated by DJ and microchip. Foreign interest seems to be so large that the entire New Beat community is waiting, with their fingers in their ears, for the worldwide explosion of the phenomenon.
Chances are it will actually happen though. "The Sound of C" by Confetti's is already doing the rounds all over Europe and from London to Detroit people are really hunting for the - so far - obscure releases. Flemish DJ's are being asked to play at London clubs, English bands are putting "Mixed in Belgium" on their records to get more attention, while techno-wizards like S-Express and Coldcut are asking Belgian producers to work with them. Jellybean, the New York king of dance and producer of Madonna for example, ordered the complete catalogue of the Subway label and was argueing for weeks with the American Atlantic Records about the publication rights. The English Jive label on the other hand bought the entire Ferrari-collection and will be publishing it worldwide very soon.
Back in this pleasant little country of rock playing hide and seek has become an incrowd-game, that's mostly being played by rock-dudes from the previous generation, who want a piece of the pie but prefer to do so incognito, because officially they think about a computer with the same contempt an accountant would do at the end of his/her career. New Beat is supposedly stupid, annoying and musically uninteresting. But also the accountant has given brother bleep an (honorary) place and it could be that future pop generations will be moving further and further away of actually using any real instruments. Properly setting up and tuning a drum kit in a recording studio already costs more than recording three New Beat records, and by the time one classic rock song reaches the shops, a New Beat 12-inch has already earned back its cost a long time ago.
Hence the enormous rate of production isn't all that surprising, momentarily there are already over 200 New Beat releases, all of them appeared in 1988. But weeding out the bad ones can be left to the people on the dance floor, the only place to measure any dance record. A lot of the releases are sensational "floor fillers", so in that area New Beat is doing very well. Of course it's only natural that the rise of New Beat has occured mostly because of the DJ's help. Although that role has ended, as the typical style that started with slowing down records has lead to a genre that exists all on its own. New Beat has become an internationally acknowledged stream in the big wave of electronic dance music and will be looking for its place along the normal paths of the music world.
A worldwide explosion
As a distant cousin of House Music, New Beat combines a couple of typical Belgian influences from the recent New Wave past with a lot of Front 242 <Belgian band, known for its Electronic Body Music>. A mixture that's eagerly desired by other countries : the last couple of months all the international "hot shots" from the record business have made their way to Aarschot, Aalst and Antwerp. Not to admire the pretty landscape, but to do some serious business.
"All our releases have now been placed across the entire globe", says Maurice Engelen <member of the band Praga Khan> from Subway Records, "and not only we but also Ferrari, Target and all the others have made numerous licensing-deals. Around February everything will get its release and if chances are good we will get a worldwide New Beat explosion".
Jo Bogaert (Nux Nemo) : "But even now a real industry has already emerged. In the past a rock musician was a civil servant who did some gigs during the evening. Because of New Beat it's finally become possible to actually make a good living being a musician. Those folks at Studio Brussel <Belgian national radio station, specialising in alternative music), who do not want to play our records and "think it's a serious scandal we're exporting something like this" don't understand anything about the whole phenomenon. Those are people in their fourties, who can only just handle the new Madonna, what are you doing saying things like that when for the first time Belgian productions are having a reasonable sale, the musicians are making some money and people from all over the world are interested as well".
Patrick Busschot (New Groove Records) : "I don't need the BRT <Belgian Dutch speaking radio- and TV-organisation> to play our records. Well, look, all those youngsters are always ready with their cassette recorders to tape every tune they like whenever it's played on the radio. One of the reasons New Beat tracks are being this successful is exactly because you can't hear them on the radio. Anyone who wants this kind of music will have to go to the record store".
Maurice Engelen : "Business isn't only doing well for the record companies alone, also the print shops and pressing factories get a piece of the pie. It's just a while ago when our pressing factory was still saving up its assignments, so they could press records continuously for several days. Now they're working at night and during weekends to get everything finished ! We've had times our print shop was about fourty thousand covers behind on schedule. In the past it was almost impossible we'd ever sell fourty thousand records in one month ! The clubs are going full steam ahead as well. We're noticing the birth of new mega clubs. There's one opening in Hasselt that has a capacity of 5,000 people <probably talking about Dockside, which is nowadays called Versuz> and that kind of places are filled up completely every single weekend, all thanks to New beat. Record store owners are telling me it's been since the early sixties Belgian music has done this well sales-wise. Back then they had the peak of Flemish singers, like Willy Sommers, Tura, etc. During that period a shopkeeper would buy in records without listening to them, as long as the material was Flemish. They placed a whole pile of the newest release by Tura or Sommers at the front of the counter and everybody who came in the shop took its copy from that pile. Now, the same thing is happening with New Beat. Records are being sold by the hundreds in no time.
A good sign of having commercial success is when only a label is sufficient to guarantee a minimum sale. And that's the case here. The shopkeeper who buys in ten New Beat records can be completely sure of the fact he'll be able to sell them as well. The so-called Belgian Boom of the early eighties has never been all that impressive actually, there was a lot about it in the press and on the radio, but the sales weren't to the same extend as the exposure it got, while we are now scoring enormously without any publicity and definitely matter".
Good news
The success of New Beat is therefore undeniable. There's actually talk about a "movement" and that's being compared to punk, but the one who's missing completely in this picture is the "rebel". New Beat seems to be quite conservative and very conform to the established values. No better Yuppie-music than that, although people who only want to hear "Le Pen to a disco beat" in the tunes might be mistaken.
Maurice Engelen : "I dare to think differently though. We are getting a lot of mail from very young people who really see New Beat as their music. They can use it for their "rebellion" as well and because the media rejects it they feel even more passionate about it. But, we're talking about teenagers who have just turned 14 or are even younger, people who can't get into clubs yet, they are the ones who give us most of the reactions we receive. On the other hand New Beat is also attractive for the somewhat older generation, who don't care much about rebellion anymore and who only want to have a good time. And this kind of music is perfect for that as well".
More good news for the youngsters is on its way : every single New Beat label is quite busy looking for the faces they want to paste on the bands. Just so the fans would have something to put up in their bedrooms, you know. Creating a culture is the name of it in professional terms, which were whispered by the foreign parts of Eurobeat in general. One can only get respected in this world by showing his/her own true face, or rather... that of someone else. As long as it's fresh and young. Just the thing a lot of those New Beat-producers aren't, they have bellies and beards and those won't bring you on Top Pop <once a Dutch TV-show, comparable to the British Top Of The Pops>.
Confetti's were the first to solve this problem, they rented a guy and four girls, who deliver magnificent photo-material but had just as much to do with their music than you and I. Subway is launching Candy's Caddy this month, a cute little kid that poses as the young Bardot <first name Brigitte, a French actress>, but probably doesn't know today on which cover she'll appear tomorrow <well, at least the one for New Beat - Take 3>. Whoever looks good and can think of some dance steps on lyrics as "Acieed" and "You wanna suck my (beep)", has a future in this country : every New Beat label is looking for him/her.
Second hurdle was the way to dress. Punk had safety pins and zippers. By now New Beat got out of its cycling-pants again and doesn't appear to have anything left to put on anymore. But they're taking care of that as well. Subway have hired a bunch of fashion people straight from the academy. You can expect loads of original New Beat Fashion this Spring. Not cheap, but 100% Belgian. "Great Rock & Roll Swindle", you might say, but that's how Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson are being sold as well, So What ? If necessary, look the other way and move your ass, feel the beat...
Compilations and even more compilations
A complete collection of New Beat records, placed next to eachother vertically, would be about one meter wide by now, but keeping the good House-tradition the releases are already being offered on outstanding compilations while they're still doing well in the charts and clubs. Those usually assemble the essential releases and are never expensive. The "New Beat - Takes 1, 2 and 3" from Subway already offer a nice cross-section of the whole event. Next to those releases, five other compilations are doing the rounds and in the first couple of weeks even more are on their way. The "New Beat Sampler" from Indisc contains terrific, but somewhat older material by for instance Nux Nemo, Acts Of Madmen, Kash In The East, Amnesia and Chico Crew. On the "Target's New Beat Story" one can find almost the entire catalogue of the label and for "The New Beat Connection" with The Maxx, Cavemen, and Dr. Phibes four smaller labels joint forces. Almost all releases by Kaos, Subway's acid-section, can be found on "This Is Acid New Beat", but "The New Acid House Techno Beat Compilation" is in fact an album by Morton-Sherman-Bellucci. By the hand of that NB-threesome there's also the compilation-CD "Beat The Box", with which you can experience how New Beat has left its original, no frills, 90 BPM, to connect with the House-movement. The tempo is turned up again, Acid showed its face, but they also tried the German Agreppo and had their eye on Balearic Beats as well. And not only this producers-trio is in touch with the international scene, others are moving towards Techno ("Rock To The Beat" is a much heard Saunderson-cover) and probably they might find a reasonable voice shortly to start making Deep House. The Belgians are feeling quite at home being part of the House-movement and that's to be expected for people who are being born with a brick in their stomach <some explanation here : that saying is used because young Belgians (couples) are usually known for wanting to buy/build their own house a.s.a.p.>.
